Letter to the Editor: Water quality

August 30, 2013

August is National Water Quality Month. It is important to acknowledge that we all need to be aware of what we can do to improve our water quality. We all want clean water and strive to ensure that we continue to monitor practices and improve on them. Iowa farmers are using many conservation practices. We have learned that through use of scientific methods, we can find ways to conserve soil and improve water quality.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey recently announced a new cost share plan to provide financial assistance. This fall, farmers statewide can work to reduce nutrient loss from their fields by planting cover crops, adopting no-till or strip-till practices or by using nitrification inhibitors.

This is called the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The goal is to have a meaningful impact on improving water quality. These strategies are designed to provide farmers with a variety of options that would best fit their operation to reduce nutrient and soil losses from their farms.

The idea is to offer a variety of methods with cost-share funds. This will allow farmers to continue or increase their use of soil saving practices next year.

We all want clean water. We want our rivers and streams to thrive with fish and aquatic life. As a Tama County farmer, I and other Iowa farmers will continue to work to conserve our soil and improve water quality.